THE CONFLICTING ROLES OF TRUTH COMMISSIONS IN AFRICA: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

Nigeria’s Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission is also known as the Oputa Panel was established in 1999 to investigate gross human rights violations that occurred between 15th January 1966 when the civilian government was overthrown and 28th May 1999 when the military quit the political scene for democratic rule. This paper aims to evaluate the role Oputa panel played in promoting reconciliations and the image of the Obasanjo administration in Nigeria. The establishment of this commission raised expectations of accountability for Nigerians but faced diverse challenges during its operation and after the commission had carried out investigations, the report was submitted to the government. The report was not released to the general public and its recommendations were not adopted. This implies that the process did not establish collective truth and did not lead to the adequate promotion of victim-centred justice since recommendations for compensations and retribution were not addressed. This paper is purely qualitative and data were secondarily derived and analysed thematically. It found that despite the commission’s vast mandate, close ties between the former authoritarian regimes and the newly elected Obasanjo administration negatively influenced the effectiveness of the commission. The absence of adequate commitment to the process and the annulment of the commission after submitting its report proved that it was not solely a mechanism for reconciliation but used as a tool to increase the legitimacy of a new regime constituted of old members. As a result of this kind of conflict, this paper recommends that African countries setting up truth commissions should use truth commissions alongside other mechanisms of transitional to achieve better results